The PPM Story

A week and a half ago I went to a seminar on the use of PPMs in Cleveland. The seminar, which was hosted by Cleveland Association of Broadcasters, was presented by multiple people from Arbitron. I don’t know about you, but most of the reading I did on the subject surrounded the negativity of the transition from diaries to PPMs. It’s not that I was uninterested in the results (in fact, I was quite interested in the results), but most of the articles out there only focused on the transition. So when a rep that I work with frequently told me about the seminar, I was excited to hear the full story.

The seminar started out the usual way, mingling, a meal of some sort, a raffle, talk about the CAB, and then we got into the reason we were all there – the PPM and how it works. Many good nuggets of information were given, but there is one thing that really stuck out in my mind. We all knew that the diaries weren’t foolproof and some people may have misrepresented the data, but the difference between the PPM and diary is amazing. Arbitron asked one person to carry a PPM and to also keep a diary. Here is the slide they showed of what the PPM picked up vs. what the participant wrote down:

As you can see, these breakdowns show 2 different stories. With the dairy, the purple station was the favorite but the PPM shows the blue one was actually listened to more!

So what does this mean? Well, ratings will go down because the AQH is going down. But at the same time, the audiences are getting larger; meaning the reach is expanding while the frequency is decreasing. According to the diary, the average stations listened to per week is 2.4. But according to the PPM, it is actually 4.0. Also, a campaign that gave you a 3 frequency (based on diary ratings) actually gave you a 2.2 frequency (according to the PPM). Although the ratings will be affected, the one point they kept stressing was “the basic metrics of Arbitron aren’t changing, only the measurement device.”

Other good nuggets of information:

• PPM captures more listening occasions (per week) than the diary (20.7 vs 12.6)
• Time spent listening (per tune-in) went from 1 hour and 13 minutes to 36 minutes
• PPM records the highest listening during PM drive, whereas with the diary it was mid-day
• The employed listen to the radio more than the unemployed
• Because results are collected daily with the PPM, it is easier to see the impact of breaking news and sports on listenership

Being a media planner/buyer, I am excited to see how this changes the ratings for next year. Our first glimpse of PPM ratings will be December 31st, when the last diary book has expired.

If you missed the seminar or would just like to see the Cleveland presentation, please click here. Arbitron is also offering a series to certify buyers in the usage of PPM and the best way to plan/buy with these new ratings.

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